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Remember when we announced our messages to others on bumper stickers? “If you can read this you’re too close.” Now those messages are on T-Shirts, and they can be quite obnoxious. “I’ve got one nerve left and you’re getting on it.” Some say a lot of truth, “You can’t scare me. I have three kids.” My t-shirt slogan of choice, “Get off your phone. The light’s green.” And one that we’ve seen identifies the wearer as, “The Center of the Universe.” That’s how we often act, as if the whole universe revolves around us. I’m the most important being in my world and if I don’t like what’s happening, I pout, “That’s not fair.”
When it comes to God, often we ask, “God, why did you allow this to happen?” This is especially true in Romans 9 where we see the doctrine of God’s sovereignty over man. God has determined all things that come to pass. Too often we think, “I don’t deserve this. It’s not fair.”
We saw last week in Romans 9:18 that God is free to have mercy on whomever He wants. It doesn’t depend on the man who wills or the man who runs (vs. 16). The natural response to this is, if God is sovereign and saves whomever he wants, how can He still hold us responsible? I mean, doesn’t this remove human responsibility? We’ve all heard this. We may have even thought it or said it.
Before we go any further, be assured that any teaching on God’s sovereignty that removes human responsibility or implies some kind of fatalism is heresy and unbiblical. The Scriptures hold every person responsible for everything he does. Christ bore the wrath for the sins of believers so we’re not under condemnation, but we will still give an account to God (Romans14; 2 Corinthians 5). We all know we are responsible for what we think, say, and do and the Bible clearly teaches it.
On the other hand, God is sovereign. God is the Potter and as the Potter He has certain prerogatives and we’d better be careful how we respond to things we don’t understand. Let’s look at four prerogatives that belong exclusively to God in Romans 9:18-33.
GOD HAS THE PREROGATIVE TO DO WHATEVER HE PLEASES.
Romans 9:18-21. So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?
Paul gives no quarter to arguing with God. “Who are you, O man, who answers back or talks back to God?” The word “answers back” in verse 20 means “to bring a judgment against.” How easy for us to turn into God’s prosecutor, ready to accuse God or tell Him what He should or should not do. How inappropriate for not only a creature made of dust, but a sinful creature with our pea-brain knowledge to talk back to God as though we needed to counsel God. You’re not the potter. You’re just a lump of clay, and a sinful lump at that!
Have you ever heard people blame God for the things in their life? If God is so big, why can’t He change my partner, or keep that accident from happening, or heal me. If God is so good, why does He allow evil things to happen? Either He’s not good or He’s not powerful enough to stop it. When we talk this way about God, we need to wash our mouths out with Bible soap. We need a biblical attitude adjustment. I remember in the riots of 2020 seeing a young thug get up close and yelling with his mouth wide open right into the policeman’s face. It reminded me of man’s rebellion against God! Who do we think we are charging God with injustice or demanding He give us an answer?
Isaiah gives us the Potter’s prerogative in Isaiah 29:16, You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made should say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
In Isaiah 45:9 God scolded Israel, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker– An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands?’”
Romans 9:21 says the potter can make from the very same lump of clay whatever he pleases–one a fine piece of porcelain for honorable use, the other for common use, perhaps a clay spittoon for tobacco juice or a trash can. Both Jacob and Esau were sinners. God was free to do what He wanted with them. He was free to let them in their sin, or to save one or both. He chose to save one and let the other in his sin. Why did He choose Jacob? Our business isn’t to pry into the inner decisions of God when He hasn’t revealed His reasons, but to trust Him and worship Him as the God who has perfect freedom to do with His creatures whatever He pleases.
Let’s apply this to your life. God is your Potter. He’s got you on the wheel. He can make of you whatever He pleases. He is wiser than you are, more powerful than you are, has a bigger picture than you have, and His plan will succeed, regardless of what you do. You have the option of either submitting and letting Him be God or fighting Him all the way. He can make you with green eyes, brown hair, a little nose and dimpled chin, or blue eyes, blonde hair, a long, crooked nose, and jutting chin. He assigns you your gender at conception and you’d be a rank rebel to try to change it. Remember, you’re the clay. He can put you in a family in the Sudan, or in Evansville, Indiana. He can allow you to be healthy or struggle with many diseases. He is free to give you lots of intelligence, or just above average like all the kids in “Lake Wobegon.” God can allow lots of trials and persecution come to you or make your life comfortable and easy. Remember Job and his wife when they lost everything in one day, including ten children? You see two opposite perspectives on God: Job said, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” His wife said, “Curse God and die.”
Now, if God is the Potter and you’re the clay, what is the wisest thing for you to do? You can live with anger, self-pity, a chip on your shoulder with a “born to lose” mentality. Or you can humble yourself under God’s mighty hand, submit to the Potter, put your life daily under His control, and rest in Him. You can either try to fight God or you can be still, cease striving, and know that God is God as Psalm 46:10 says. After being humbled by God, King Neb declared in Daniel 4:35, “He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” One thing is for sure, if you fight God, you will not win–guaranteed!
GOD HAS THE PREROGATIVE TO SHOW WRATH OR MERCY TO GUILTY SINNERS.
Romans 9:22-23, What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
Jay Adams commented on these two verses. “Here, perhaps beyond every other passage of Scripture, you penetrate into the ultimate meaning of the universe.” Jay calls this God’s Grand Demonstration of His wrath and power and of His glory and mercy. God demonstrates His justice in bringing His powerful wrath upon sinners, just like a judge demonstrates his justice when he rightly condemns a criminal. Or He has the right to demonstrate the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy.
Two words in verses 22-23 sound similar but are different Greek words. In verse 22 the vessels of wrath were “prepared” or fitted for destruction. Who fitted them for destruction? Their own sin did! This is a different word from vs. 23, “prepared beforehand.” It’s true that God sovereignly passed by these people. God is free to do that – God is under no constraint or obligated to show mercy to any. But sinners rightly deserve judgment, and the time will come when they will get it. This is the doctrine of reprobation – that God allows some to remain in their sin and come into condemnation, but their condemnation is not God’s fault. Some try to say God created these people for destruction. That’s not what it says. Martyn Lloyd-Jones vehemently denies that God created some people just to send them to hell. “That’s a lie! It’s not taught anywhere in the Scripture.” Romans 2:5 clearly tells us who prepared these vessels of wrath for destruction.
Romans 2:5, But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
Who’s storing it up? It’s not God storing up wrath, but sinners who are storing up wrath against themselves. Spurgeon said regarding vessels of wrath, “God is not fitting you; you are fitting yourselves by daily indulging the depravity of your heart.”
In verse 23 you have a different word for “prepared beforehand.” Who prepared these vessels of mercy for glory? God did. And He did it beforehand. We’re back to the doctrine of election and sovereign mercy. God loves to show mercy and He chose a vast multitude of sinners before the foundation of the world to be His people, vessels not of wrath but of mercy. Ephesians 2:5 says God is rich in mercy and great in love toward those He prepared beforehand for glory! Today, anyone who wants to come to Christ in faith, believing He bore God’s wrath in your place, can have your sins forgiven. Christ’s righteousness will be imputed or placed to your sin account, and you will be given the gift of eternal life. You can be assured that God is calling you and giving you that faith in Christ so that when you die you will be with Jesus. The only thing that will keep you away from salvation is choosing your own sin-bound will. If you reject Christ, you’ll only have yourself to blame.
So, God is patiently, with much patience, putting up with all kinds of evil and wickedness right now so He can show His mercy to those He foreknew. Second Peter 3:9 adds, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” The “you” and “all” in that verse are speaking of God’s elect. God is patiently putting up with all the wickedness in this world, and there’s a world of it, so that He may patiently call all His elect, His vessels of mercy, to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
God has the prerogative to deal with sinners in either justice or mercy, whichever He chooses. He’s the potter. We’re the lowly sinful clay, sovereignly molded into vessels of mercy to His everlasting glory and our eternal blessing!
GOD HAS THE PREROGATIVE TO CALL WHOMEVER HE CHOOSES.
Romans 9:24-29, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. 25 As He says also in Hosea, “I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.'” 26 “AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.” 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; 28 FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.” 29 And just as Isaiah foretold, “UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.”
Who are these vessels of mercy in verse 24? Even us! Who? Everyone whom God calls to faith in Jesus Christ, from both Jews and Gentiles. Are you a vessel of mercy? Remember, you were a vessel of wrath but for God’s patience and sovereign mercy! While it is sad that Israel as a nation went astray, God’s plan goes on. Any Jew who repents and turns to Christ in faith will be saved! This is Paul’s point from Hosea and Isaiah. Look, way back God told you what would happen. Paul applies Hosea to believing Jews and Gentiles and the remnant teaching from Isaiah to the Jews.
Never say God’s Word has failed. It has not and never will! And while God sent dreadful judgments on Israel for their idolatry and wickedness (the Assyrians in 722 BC, the Babylonians in 586 BC, the Romans in AD 70), God has always preserved a remnant. He has a remnant of Jews even today who have submitted to Christ as their Savior. God will never completely wipe out Israel. There were no survivors of Sodom and Gomorrah. You can’t even find Sodom, but you can find Jerusalem and Jews scattered all over the world! There are around 16 million Jews today, six million in the U. S., 1.6 million in NYC!
Most of Israel has not submitted to Christ, just as God foretold. They crucified Him, then persecuted His followers, then were driven out of Israel into the dispersion, still maintaining their identity. But there has always been a remnant of Jews who believe in Christ. Steve Lawson has a Jew in his Bible Study. After the rapture of the church during the seven-year tribulation period, God will save at least 12,000 Jews from each tribe. They will face intense persecution, but Christ will return and save Israel as a nation and rule from Jerusalem over her and other nations for 1000 years, but more of that in Romans 11.
GOD HAS THE PREROGATIVE TO SAVE ANY PERSON WHO BELIEVES ON HIS SON.
Romans 9:30-33, What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
The Gentiles responded to Christ in faith and Israel stumbled over Christ; yet even this was prophesied! Amazing. God’s plan goes on. He told us what would happen, and it did…and it will. Here they were, the quintessential law keepers, the peak of self-righteousness, straining out gnats and swallowing camels, praying and giving and fasting to be seen of men, but God’s way of salvation was through Christ and the cross. They stumbled and were offended by Christ. They thought they could get to heaven by keeping the law. John MacArthur says, “Self-righteousness has always been the greatest obstacle to salvation.”
Look who God saved in Corinth? Gentiles who weren’t pursuing righteousness: adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, revilers (1 Cor. 6:9-10). But they were vessels of mercy whom God washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God, says Paul. Verse 33b says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” God forgives, justifies, gives eternal life, adopts, and fills believers with the joy of the Lord.
This week I read the story of Kelly Gissendaner, a vessel of mercy. In 1997 she had her lover kidnap her husband, take him into the woods, kill him, and attempt to burn the evidence. They wanted to collect on a life insurance policy and take ownership of the new house Kelly and her husband had just purchased. Kelly was convicted of murder and given a death sentence. While in prison, God opened her heart to repent of her sins and trust in Jesus Christ as her Savior. She became an avid student of the Bible, ministered to other ladies, and even counseled suicidal women through an air vent in the prison. She was truly a vessel of mercy. She was executed on September 30, 2015, at a Georgia State Prison, the first woman executed in Georgia since 1945. She went to her death singing Amazing Grace, assuring her two girls she loved them, and expressing deep sorrow for her horrible crime. Kelly Gissendaner was a vessel of mercy.
Are you a vessel of mercy? Are you submitting to God as the Potter of your life? Are you willing to let God be God in your life? Are you humbled and grateful that God has had mercy on you? What does our Sovereign, merciful Potter deserve? If His grand demonstration is His glory in showing mercy to sinners, then you and I need to live daily to His glory, giving Him all our love and obedience and highest honor. Let’s ask Him to mold and shape us into just exactly what He wants us to be, into the image of His Son.